Middle-earth: Shadow of War tops October 2017 NPD sales

It was a big month for single-player games as several topped October 2017’s best-selling list according to the NPD Group. While more companies are pushing towards ‘Games as a Service’ and multiplayer titles, October shows that dedicated fans will still support strong single-player experiences, even those with controversial loot boxes. Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Assassin’s Creed Origins managed to snag the number one and two spots both overall and on Xbox One. The software sales lists can be read below.

Overall

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Assassin’s Creed: Origins

Super Mario Odyssey**

South Park: The Fractured But Whole

NBA 2K18

FIFA 18

WWE 2K18

Madden NFL 18

Destiny 2*

Forza Motorsport 7

Gran Turismo Sport

Grand Theft Auto V

The Evil Within 2**

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus**

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**

Mario Kart 8**

Fire Emblem: Warriors**

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

NHL 18

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege

* No Battle.net sales ** No digital sales

Xbox One

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Assassin’s Creed: Origins

Forza Motorsport 7

South Park: The Fractured But Whole

NBA 2K18

FIFA 18

Destiny 2

WWE 2K18

Madden NFL 18

Grand Theft Auto V

The best-selling games over the last 12 months

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Destiny 2*

Battlefield 1

Grand Theft Auto V

NBA 2K18

NBA 2K17

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Madden NFL 18

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild**

Final Fantasy XV

NPD analyst Mat Piscatella stated that “year to date, sales of RPGs are up 43 percent.” This is certainly a good sign for the genre. In October alone, sales grew more than 20%. Both Shadow of War and Assassin’s Creed Origins did better than their respective predecessors.

While overall hardware earnings were up compared to last year, this is mostly due to the Nintendo Switch. Microsoft does not disclose Xbox One sales anymore, but its newest system looked good in countries aside from Japan. However seeing as the Xbox One X launched in November, none of its impact would have been been shown in the NPD’s data last month.